Reserve-museum "Gnezdovo" was established from 1 January 2011 in order to maintenance, reconstruction, operation and technical equipment of the object of cultural heritage "Gnezdovo archaeological complex". Gnezdovo the complex of archeological monuments are under state protection as a monument of Federal value since 1960.

Gnezdovo complex, a monument of the era of the Vikings and the period of formation of the old Russian state, is the largest burial mound of early medieval epoch (IX-X CC.) in Europe. The most famous part of Gnezdovo complex are burial mounds, which form 8 barrows groups. The vast majority of them were built over the graves of the local resident population gnesdova, Slavs and Scandinavians. Biggest surviving barrows groups - Forest burial group currently has about 1100 burial mounds. On the territory of the monument during the excavations of one of the burial mounds of the Forest group in 1949, was discovered amphoras from the first Cyrillic Slavic inscription "Goro(u)sh(n)а", dated by the first quarter of the X century. It is the oldest Russian inscription, known to science. At the present time on the territory of the Gnezdovo archaeological complex preserved about 2500 burial mounds (from 4000 existed previously). For 145 years of study of the complex archaeologists have excavated and studied the order of 1,000 burial mounds